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‘Security forces’ rob Baghdad academics

WHEN Iraqi soldiers and police smashed their way into Mohammed al-Jabouri’s home on the first day of Baghdad’s latest security crackdown last week, he did not imagine they would steal the family’s life savings.

The security forces separated the men from the women and then ordered Jabouri’s wife to give them a suitcase filled with jewellery and £20,000 in cash. When she argued they threatened to shoot her. Then they destroyed the furniture and broke the windows of the cars in the garage.

“The same militiamen who used to raid our areas in the past are now conducting the security crackdown, using this as a chance to attack us further,” Jabouri said.

Later the same night, security forces raided a compound containing the homes of 110 university professors and their families. Professor Hameed al-Aathami described what happened: “They dragged us out of our beds as we slept with our wives